After the publication of The Birds of America, JJA and his wife Lucy lived at Minnie’s Land―their estate on the Hudson River between West 155th and 158th streets in New York City. They continued showing his spectacular avian watercolors—the touchstone of their life together and the legacy of their family—to frequent visitors. Today, their remains are interred together in nearby Trinity Cemetery. READ MORE

Today, four species that Audubon depicted are extinct (Carolina Parakeet, Passenger Pigeon, Labrador Duck, and Great Auk), while another two are most certainly so (Eskimo Curlew and Bachman’s Warbler), and a seventh most likely (Ivory-billed Woodpecker). Many others are endangered, threatened, or on the decline. As everyone knows, birds are the canaries in the coal mine for planet Earth, and they have much to teach humans.READ MORE

Audubon’s innovations as a naturalist-artist are apparent in these spectacular watercolors for The Birds of America. They display his brilliant contributions not only to the tradition of ornithological illustration―transforming it into an exhilarating fine art that captured the behaviors and life force of each species―but also to the development of watercolor as a sophisticated medium.READ MORE

The Final Flight is the third exhibition in the once-in-a-lifetime series showcasing the New-York Historical Society’s unparalleled collection of John James Audubon’s (1785–1851) dazzling watercolor models for The Birds of America (1827–38), engraved by Robert Havell Jr. (1793–1878).READ MORE

The two specimens and the nest that Audubon portrayed in this watercolor model were sent to him from the West by Nuttall, who described the male of the species as “a breathing gem, or magic carbuncle of glowing fire, stretching out its gorgeous ruff, as if to emulate the sun itself in splendour.”READ MORE

The date of 1838 in its inscription proves that Audubon painted the gigantic species―measuring over nine feet from the tips of its wings―which he called the “California Vulture,” in London from a specimen. Audubon had never observed it and depended on a description of its habits that he had solicited from Townsend, together with an account published by the naturalist David Douglas in the 1828 Zoological Journal.READ MORE

Perhaps more than any other watercolor preparatory for The Birds of America, this sheet helps us to understand the level of planning that Audubon put into his tableaux. The sheet is really a layout for Havell to follow in constructing the final engraved copperplate composition (Figure 1).READ MORE

Comparing this later version with Audubon’s earlier study (Figure 1)―where the bird is collaged onto a flat background―underlines why he revised his composition. In 1821 he had cut the bird in the watercolor 1863.18.33 from an even earlier work, which he had deemed unsuccessful, and pasted it onto this sheet. READ MORE

JJA wrote in the Ornithological Biography that he had never seen this western duck and, therefore, “I have introduced a figure of it taken by my son John Woodhouse, from a beautiful specimen in the Museum of Norwich, in England.” The watercolor of the standing bird after a stuffed specimen (1863.18.37) was predominantly by JJA’s son.READ MORE

Audubon’s Aviary: Parts Unknown (Part II of The Complete Flock) from The Birds of America

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Written by Roberta J.M. Olson with a contribution by Marjorie Shelley, Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for the Birds of America returns to these original paintings and tells the story behind this monumental classic with new discoveries about this American icon. Audubon’s Aviary was awarded the 2013 Association of Art Museum Curators Outstanding Permanent Collection Catalogue Prize, as well as the Henry Allen Moe Prize for Catalogs of Distinction in the Arts, the New York State Historical Association, 2013. It was also selected as one of Amazon.com’s 2012 Best Books of the Year and the 2013 New York Book Show Award winner in the category of Fine Art.